Power drive selective mechanism



Siggi R. A. CROOKS POWER DRIVE SELECTIVE MECHANISM Filed July 25. 1928 Oct. 13, 1931.

Patented 0.13, 1931.- l n v j p 1,825,742

UNITED STATESPATENT oFFlca nonnnr A. caooxs, or oIIIcAGo, ILLINOIS Poway. :calva smc'rrvn. IIECIIANISM applicati@ nea July as, lass.- seria lo. amiss.

This invention relates to improvementsin provided with a conventionall key `13, a carpower drive selective mechanism which is rier 14,- and the carrier latch member 15. adapted for use in connection with power The key lever is pivotally mounted on the lpddriven typewriters, adding machines, billing 10 and has an arcuate4 slot 16 which permits A machines and other apparatus. of limited movement with reference tothe 66 The principal object'of'the invention is to rod-11 which passes through said s lot. The provide a simple, positive acting mechanism lever has a catch 17 whlch may be integrally which can be manufactured at low cost and formed therewith, and also a small flange or' having a few parts, most of .which can be stud 18 which projects laterally from the A l stamped from sheetmetal. lever. Another stud 19 is rovided at the 60 Another object of the invention is to prorear of the lever 12 to-be re erred to hereinvide a mechanism which can be complactly as.- afteri l sembled in a sound proofed casing, t, us elim- The carrier or slide 14 is provided witha inating in large measure the noise incident longitudinal slot 20 by means of which it is l5 to operation. slidably mounted on the bars 10 and 11 on N5 Other objects relate to various features of the remote side of lever 12. To the rear, or construction and` arrangement of parts left hand end of the carrier as viewed in which will become apparent from'a consid- Figures 1 'and 2, is eccentrically mounted at eration of the following specification and ..21 a cam disk or wheel 22, the periphery of accompanying drawings, wherein: v which preferably is milled or serrated to pre- 70 Figure 1V is a vertical sectional view vent slippage when it is moved into engagethrough a casing. one unit of the mechanism ment with the power driven cylinder 23 which being shown in side elevation. l may be provided with an outer rubber sheath Figure 2 is a side elevation showing the 24. The cylinder 23 is driven by a motor or 97* mechanism in the forward position correother power source (not shown) in the direc- 75 spending to the first step in the cycle of tion of the arrow, or counterclock-wise.

movement. The cylinder is of a length to serve all the Figure 3 is a fragmentary side elevation units mounted on the rods 10, 11. showing the mechanism in a retracted posi- The forward end of the carrier 14 has a '2" tion. horizontal stop ange 25 which in the posin Figure 4 is a broken end view of two simtion shown in Figure 1 is in engagement with ilar units. the catch 17 of an adjacent lever 12. A coil Figure 5 is abroken longitudinal sectional spring 26 engages with .the forward end of view of a key lever controlling mechanism. the carrier 14, such as with the flange 27 con- Figure 6 Iis a broken perspective view veniently formed for thispurpose. The op- 95 thereof. g posite end of the spring 26 may engage with In the drawings the mechanism iS ShOWIl the hook 28 formed by bending therear end for the purpose of illustration in connecof the 'spring 29 partly around the rod 10. tion with certain portions of a typewriter, The spring 29 passes over the rod 11 and its 'W all parts of which not necessary to a clearl forward end is bent laterally to engage the understanding of the present invention belower edge of the key lever 12. The spring .ing omitted for the sake of simplicity. 29 thus tends to hold the lever 12 in the posi- For each key of the machine, such as a tion shown in Figure 1, in which position the typewriter, with which the present invention catch 17 engages the stop `25 and prevents the is employed, an operating vunit will be emcarrier 14 from moving to the left under the 9 i ployed, the units being arrangedon one or action of the spring 26. more pairs of rods 10, 11 which may be suit- The latch 15 is oscillatably mounted on the ably supported in parallel relation by the rod 11 on the near side of lever 12 as viewed in frame of the machine. Figure 1 and is provided with a latch setting A unit comprises essentially a key lever 12 arm 15a and stop arm' 15b as shown. Arm

A cycle of operation of the apparatus will now be described. When lthe key 13 is depressed by the operator, the lever 12 is moved about the rod 10, the arcuate slot 16 permitting such movement) thus causing the catch 17 to be moved romthe path of the stop 25,

whereupon the spring 26 moves the carrier 14 and cam disk 22 to the left to the position position of maximum throw. In this shown in Figure 2. In this posit-ion the stop pin 22a is clear of the lug 19 and the disk is free to rotate on the eccentric axis 21, due to the tractive force of the power driven rotating cylinder 23. The disk 22 thus rotates clockwise and forces the carrier to the right Iagainst the action of the spring 26. The

throw of the disk is sufficient to move the carrier to the right beyond the osition vshown in Figure 1 and thus actuates t e type bar 33 or other operating member or mechanism by means of the link 34, the bar being 'pivoted at 35 to any suitable part of the operating ma-` chine and being retracted to normal position by the conventional spring 36. The link 344 slides in a slot 37 onthe carrier 14 on the' forward stroke of the latter and thus does not move the member 33 from the position shown in Figure 1 except when the disk 22 is in the position of maximum throwof the cam disk 22, the flange 25 is approximately in the position shown by dotted lines in Figure 3 which permits thestop arm 15b to move to the position shown in Figure 3. This clockwise movenient of the latch 15 is effected bythe curved cam position 14a of carrier 14 engaging the extension 30 of the arm 15a; as the carrier 14 makes the return movement under action of the cam disk 22. The engagement of the flange 25 by the arm 15b prevents an unintentional repetition of the stroke of the carrier 14 and of the type bar 33 which otherwise would occur should the key lever 12 be held in depressed position during this portion of the cycle of operation. It-thus will be seen that this automatic stopping of the carrier 14 is positive since the latch member 15 is actuated directly by the carrier. Regardless of the speed of the return movement of the carrier, it will be prevented from repeating by the latch. Upon removal of the operators linger from the key 13, the `spring 29 moves it upwardly or counterclockwise around 'the rod 10 to the position shown in Figure 1. During this upward movement the lug 18 engages the loweredge oi'' arm 15b and moves it from the position shown in Figure 3 to the position ilis'in the position shown inV lustrated in Figure 1, the latch 17 moving up simultaneously to engage the flange 25, in which position the parts are ready for asimilar cyc e of operations upon the depression of the key lever 12. Upon the enga ement of the stop ange 25 by the edge 31 o? arm 15b, the cam disk 22 clears the roller or cylinder 23 and is carried by its momentum until it is stopped in normal position by the stud 22a coming in contact with the lug 19 of the adj acent unit.

The units are arranged in parallel relation on the bars 10 and 11 and may be held in spaced relation by any suitable means s'uh as the ins 38,38.

T e several units may be enclosed in a casing 40 having a linin 41 of felt or other sound deadenin materialto uietthe operation of the-mec anism, suita le slots being provided for the key levers 12 and the links 34.

To prevent the depression of more than one key lever at a time, I have provided a controlling'mechanism comprising a casing 42 which is suitably mounted in any operative position with reference to the levers 12, as on the front of the casing 40. The casing 42 may lbe rectangular -in cross section and provided with longitudinal inwardly depressed ribs 43 which form su ports or'bearings for the balls 44 longitudinally movably within the casing. Slots 45 are provided in the casing, one for each key lever 12.` The balls are of such size, with reference to the length of the casing and thickness of the levers, that when' one lever has been depressed into its respective slot, the balls at each side of said lever are inv contact, that is, there is suficient spare space in the casing to accommodate one lever only. Hence when one lever is depressed, wedging the balls laterally of the casing, the remaining slots are obstructed, thus preventing the simultaneous operation of two or more levers.v The ribs 43 permit the balls to move freely within the casin In igure 3 the arm 15a of the latch 15 is shown provided with a roller 150 which reduces friction upon contact with the cam surface 14a of the carrier or slide member 14.

The `mechanism described can be made largely of sheet metal and as the parts are relatively simple and few in number the mechanisms and' may be operated by other than manual means, such as by magnetic means. Although I have disclosed one speciic form of my improvements 'for the purpose of illustration it will be seen-that various changes may be made therein without dearting from the spirit of the invention, and do not wish to be restricted specifically 'thereto except where so limited bythe appended claims. p

What I claim is:

1. Mechanism ofrthe class described comprising a manually operable lever, a catch member thereon, a slide member adapted to be held in retracted position by 'said catch, means for moving said slide forwardly when' released by said catch, an eccentric 'carried by said slide, power means adapted to col-act with said eccentric for retracting said slide, an operating member actuatable by said sli de, upon the retraction thereof, and an'oscillatable latch for preventing unintentional vrepeated strokes of said slide, said latch being moved to operative and inoperative positions by said slide and lever, respectively.

2.- Mechanism of the class `described comprising a manually operable lever, a catch member thereon, a slide adapted to be held in normal retracted position by said catch, means for moving said lslide forwardly when releasedy by said catch, power means for retracting said slide, an operating member actuatable by said slide upon the retraction thereof, and a latch for engaging said slide to prevent a second forward stroke of the saine while said' catch is in releasing position,` said latch being automatically set in engaging position by'said slide.-

3. Apparatus of the class described'comprising a pair of transverse horizontal supporting rods, a manually operable vertically lmovable lever pivotally supported by one of said rods, said other rod servingto limit theI pivotal movement of said lever, a spring for urging said lever to upper position, said lever having a catch member, ahorizontally movable slide guided by said rods, said catch releasablyholding said slide in retracted position, a. spring for moving said slide forwardly when released by said catch, power means for fretracting said slide, operating mechanism actuatedby said slide upon the return movement thereof, a latch pivotally carried by one of said rods, said catch having a pair of arms, one of said arms having a portion disposed in the *pathv of said slide for actuation by said slide into position wherein said other arm engages said slide to prevent a second forward movement of said vslide while said catch is in releasing position, andv A aV lifting member carried by said lever vfor moving said latch out of slide engaging position simultaneously with the spring movement of said lever and catch into normal position wherein said catch retains said slide in retracted position.

4. Apparatus of the class described comprising a pair of transverse horizontal supporting rods, a manually operable vertically movable lever pivotally supported by' one of said rods, said other rod serving to limit the pivotal movement of said lever, a spring for urging said lever to upper position, said lever having a catch member, a horizontally movable slide guided by said rods, said' catch releasably holdin said-slide in retracted olsition, a spring or moving said slide orwardly when released by said catch, power means for retracting said slide, operating mechanism actuated by said slide upon the return `movement thereof, a latch pivotally carried by one of said rods, said catch havl ing a pair of arms, one of said arms having a portion disposed in the path of said'slide for actuation by said slide into position 'wherein said other arm engages said slide to prevent a. second forward movement of said slide while said catch is in releasing position, and a lifting member carried by said lever for moving said latch out of slide engaging position simultaneously with the spring movement of said lever and catch into normal position wherein said catch retains said slide` in retracted position, said lifting member being formed as a laterally extending lug integral with said lever.

5. Mechanismof the class described comprising a manually operable lever, a catch member thereomja slide having a lateral extension forming a stop adapted to be engaged by said catch for holding said slide in fetracted position, a spring for movingk said slide forwardly when released upon the depression of said lever, a power actuated roller,

a rotatable disk eccentrically mounted on said i slide and movable by the latter into contact with said roller for eecting the retraction of said slide, operating mechanism, a link loosely engaging said slide for actuating said operating mechanism upon the return movement of said slide, an oscillatable latch having a stop portion and a setting portion, said setting portion being actuatable by said slide v for moving said stop portion into the path of said stop for preventing a second forward stroke of said slide `While Said catch is in slide releasing'position, a spring for moving said lever to normal position when released by the operator, and a lug on said lever for moving said latch out of operative position simultaneously with the return movement of said catch into engagement with said slide stop.

6. Mechanism of the class described comprising a manually operable lever, a catch member thereon, a slide having a lateral ext movement of said slide, an osoillatable latch having a stop portion and a settin portion said setting portion being actuataloe by sad slide for movln said stop portion into the path or said sli e stop for preventin a seeond forward stroke of said slide While said catch is in slide releasing position, a springv for moving said lever to normal position when released hy the operator, and a lug on said lever for moving said latch out of operative position simultaneously with the return movement of said catch into engagement with' said slide stop, said disk having a pin for engaging a relatively stationary member on an vadj acent lever for limiting the rotation of A said disk after the retraction of said slide.

'i'. Mechanism of the class described comprising a pair ofparallel supporting rods, a

" depressible operating lever pivoted on one of said rods, a latch pivoted on the other rod, a slide having an elongated slot through which said rods pass and on which said slide is reciprocable, said lever having a catch for engaging said slide for holding the latter in retracted position When said lever is 11n-depressed, means for moving said slide forwardly upon the depression of said lever lto release said catch, means for retracting said slide, an operating member aotuatable by said slide upon'the retraction thereof, said latch having means engaged by said slide upon the return movement thereof for moving said latch into position to revent a second forward movement of sald slide while said lever remains depressed, anda member on said lever for moving said latch to inoperative position simultaneously AWith the re turn movement of said catch lto slide engaging position;

In Witness whereof I have subscribed my name.

ROBERT A. CROOKS,

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